AIRE and autoimmune disease: It should be noted that ectopic expression of TSA genes in self-APCs is regulated, at least in part, by a transcription factor AIRE (autoimmune regulator) that we previously found deficient in the patients with autoimmune disease APECED (also known as APS1; OMIM no. 240300) (Nagamine et al., 1997; Aaltonen et al., 1997).